Why SOLIDWORKS Plastics?

Created specifically for the makers of plastic products, SOLIDWORKS Plastics allows part designers, molders, and toolmakers the ability to simulate the injection molding process, removing the guesswork to ensure a quality part can be produced efficiently before ever cutting steel.

Building upon SOLIDWORKS’ existing mold design features, SOLIDWORKS Plastics provides an intuitive way to predict filling patterns, reduce cycle time, and prevent a wide range of defects all within the familiar SOLIDWORKS interface. A robust library of manufacturer-specified polymers helps to optimize wall thickness or other part features, compare gate, runner and cooling design, and even predict the warpage of finished parts- all eliminating costly mold rework and leading to capable parts on the very first try.

Save Time and Money

Explore how adjustments to geometry, mold layout, material, and processing parameters can help save time, resources, and money – by optimizing the injection molding process and eliminating mold rework cycles. The cost of change in an injection mold tooling project increases sharply once the tool design is initiated – and the cost of one issue can often run to many times the cost of the software. SOLIDWORKS Plastics provides an easy-to-use tool to identify those issues before it’s too late.

SOLIDWORKS Plastics 2016 Datasheet

SOLIDWORKS Plastics brings injection molding simulation directly to the designers of plastic parts and injection molds. You can evaluate the manufacturability of your parts and molds at the same time you design for form, fit, and function.

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Intuitive Designer-Centric Workflows

SOLIDWORKS Plastics runs directly on 3D models inside of SOLIDWORKS – which provides the benefit of being able to instantly analyze the effect of design changes, with no need to translate SOLIDWORKS files to another design or analysis package.

An intuitive interface assists the designer step-by-step through the analysis process, with guided workflows to ensure correct setup, and robust and automatic tools for meshing and solving. This lets users focus on design and developing a good product, leaving the analysis to the software.

Test Out Multiple Design Options

SOLIDWORKS Plastics allows experimentation with gate, runner and sprue locations and sizes, different mold cavity layouts, and features automated runner-balancing technology for family tools. The SOLIDWORKS Plastics material library features thousands of parts, and is fully customizable, so you’ll never be short of an alternate material to try.

Eliminate Common Defects

Guided result advisers help draw attention to potential issues, and suggest adjustments to wall thickness or molding parameters that will help optimize the molding process. Identify and improve the location of weld lines, air traps, sink marks, surface finish defects, and other molding issues, and understand injection pressure and clamp tonnage requirements for plastic molding machines.